Lawrance A. Bohm

With the rise of the #MeToo movement and recent high-profile cases around the nation, whistleblowers have been having a moment in the media. But for Bohm, they've long been his bread and butter.

"There is no way you can do a lot of employment law wrongful termination stuff and avoid whistle blowing unless you're trying to avoid it," said the principal and founder of Bohm Law Group Inc. in Sacramento.

Needless to say, Bohm is not in the habit of "trying to avoid it." This spring he won $3.4 million in general and punitive damages for a hospital pharmacist terminated after reporting fraud and other illegal behavior relating to prescription narcotics. Kazminy v. Dignity Health, CV161989 (Yolo Super. Ct., filed April 4, 2019).

This is just one of several whistleblower cases he's won or settled in the past year. Many of these also involved health care entities. His clients have included an emergency room nurse, an anesthesiology professor and a chief of child and adolescent psychology at a hospital. Awards ranged from a $700,000 settlement to $2.5 million.

He finds whistleblower cases "extremely palatable because it's the kind of issue that seems to be bipartisan," he said. "If you are legitimately coming forward and reporting something that's illegal and you lost your job because of it, there's a real powerful theme of support from juries."

He's not taking these cases because they are the most lucrative possible use of his time, Bohm added.

"Whistleblower cases are excellent cases, even though oftentimes they do not offer attorney's fees, which is frankly an oddity of California law," Bohm said.

There are exceptions, such as cases of violations of the Fair Employment and Housing Act or governmental misconduct. The latter applied to the $2.5 million settlement he won in January for the anesthesiology professor. Breen v. Regents of the University of California, et al., 14-00729731 (O.C. Super. Ct., filed June 20, 2014).

These cases come with "very complicated exhaustion requirements," he added, meaning many litigants never get all the way through the process.

Another part of his core business is workplace discrimination cases, which do come with attorney fees. He finds most employers don't want to take him on in such matters. "The only takers now tend to be government entities," he said.

His recent settlements include a private pilot who reported sexual harassment and other misconduct by a wealthy employer and a lesbian woman who was fired after suing for an Equal Pay Act violation.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan